For Urban Homesteadings owner Cait Casey, one of the greatest gifts of sourdough-making is that it can’t be rushed. In fact, from start to finish, one of her homemade loaves takes about 32 hours.
After more than 10 years of Air Force service, a traumatic birth experience, and postpartum struggles, baking sourdough became an unexpected source of healing and joy for the Santa Maria resident, helping her better manage the food she and her family consumed.
“The smallest thing that I could get control over was what I was feeding me and my family,” she said. “Sourdough is so meticulous and so time-consuming that it just doesn’t allow a lot of time or energy for other things. It gave me purpose and focus again.”
She made her first loaf of sourdough with a starter she was given and the guidance of one of her best friends. Making the bread from scratch reminded her of how they cooked in Italy, where she was stationed two different times while in the Air Force.
She explained how in Italy, they put authentic ingredients, time, effort, and love into the food they make.
“If you’ve never had real Italian food, I can tell you, you don’t get food that tastes like that from people that don’t love what they’re making,” Casey said. “It’s just not possible.”
With this in mind, she created a house rule stating that she cannot bake bread when she is in a bad mood.
“It all comes out in the bread,” she said. “If you miss something, or you rush something, or you get impatient with something, then next thing you know, you’ve got burnt loaves, and you’re like, ‘What is going on?’
“You just have to love what you’re doing.”
Once she started baking bread regularly and sharing it with her friends on the Air Force base, Casey said that they encouraged her to start selling her loaves. With three children under 3 years old at home, this seemed like an impossible task, especially given how much time and effort went into making each loaf.
However, with a strong passion for serving others, she decided to try selling her sourdough throughout the local community. In the spring of 2024, she opened up an online storefront and spread awareness about her business through word of mouth and social media.
She said she found joy in making “real food for real people,” noting that feeding and nourishing others is another great gift of sourdough-making.
In addition to making sourdough from scratch, she also makes butter, buttermilk, baked cinnamon and sugar doughnuts, and other goodies—including browned butter chocolate chip sourdough cookies, cranberry walnut and goat cheese loaves, German beer bread, sourdough pizza crust, and sourdough pasta.
On Urban Homesteadings’ Instagram, she posted that her best seller is the jalapeño and cheddar loaf—in six months of running her shop, she sold 728 such loaves. Casey also sold 359 cookies, 342 brownies, and 710 doughnuts, according to her post. Locals can find her wares at the Santa Maria fairgrounds farmers market and other markets and events throughout the Central Coast.
“I truly, truly believe that when we give back to our community, especially through breaking bread and sustainment and good whole ingredients, everybody rises and benefits from that,” Casey said.
Coming into the new year, Casey shared that she is excited to start milling all of her own flour in-house as part of the breadmaking process. To start out, she will use an attachment on her KitchenAid mixer to mill wheat berries in small batches.
“That way, when I give someone pasta or a loaf of bread, I know that what I’m giving them is good for them,” she explained. “I know because it’s something that I would give my family.”
Staff Writer Emma Montalbano just started her first-ever sourdough starter. Send tips to emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 9-19, 2025.